A new exhibition from the British Library celebrates the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by combining fantasy and reality. The exhibition displays texts from J.K. Rowling’s private archives alongside actual historical manuscripts and artefacts, which tell the story of the magic and folklore that Rowling incorporated into the Harry Potter books.

For the J.K. Rowling lovers

For a lot of Potter fans, the really exciting exhibits on show come from J.K. Rowling’s private collection, and they show how Harry Potter sprang into life. Highlights include a first handwritten draft of chapter 17 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, when Harry realises that Quirrel, not Snape, has been terrorising the school.

OMG TWIST

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Also on display is Rowling’s original synopsis that she sent out to publishers so you can see just what the 12 publishers who rejected the book were faced with. You can even read deleted a portion of The Chamber of Secrets that was eventually replaced with Harry and Ron's escapade in the flying car.

Imagine being of the 12 people who saw this and thought, 'nah, not for me'

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Possibly most spellbinding for those interested in Rowling's creative process are the exhibits that show how she kept the story clear in her head, like the timetable she drew up to know where any character would be on any given day in the Hogwarts school year. There's even a sketch Rowling did of the Hogwarts grounds, complete with a giant squid in the lake.

Oh hi there squiddy buddy.

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The exhibition has the Rowling seal of approval, as the woman herself said in a press release:

“The British Library has done an incredible job. Encountering objects for real that have in some shape or form figured in my books has been quite wonderful and to have several of my own items in the exhibition is a reminder of twenty amazing years since Harry was first published.”

Connecting Harry Potter and real magic

The exhibition connects Rowling's world with the history of magic in our own. It's divided into the subjects studied at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Potions, Herbology, Charms, Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, and Defence against the Dark Arts. A little gutting that Transfiguration didn't get a mention but it's still a pretty epic curriculum.

A lot of the artefacts will be recognisable to your common-or-garden Potterhead. They have an actual bezoar stone, which was believed to be an antidote to any poison, just like the one Harry uses on Ron in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. There are some medieval instructions on how to pick mandrakes (fluffy earmuffs do not get a mention) as well as practical advice on how to defeat a basilisk. They even have an invisibility cloak, although it’s not much to look at.

One of the gems of the collection is the Ripley scroll, a 6-metre-long scroll from the 1500s that tells you how to make the philosopher's stone, and hidden within it is a Harry Potter easter egg. According to the scroll to create the philosopher's stone you have to create three stones first: the black stone, the white stone, and the red stone. Albus is Latin for white, Rubeus is Latin for red and then of course there's Sirius Black. Coincidence?!

The three stones, white (Albus) red (Rubeus) and black, required to make your very own elixir of life.

Image: british library

As well as pooling loads of really cool artefacts from all over the world, the exhibition is really interactive. They have an augmented reality celestial globe that lets you explore the heavens, and discover which Harry Potter characters are named after constellations. There's also a golden snitch that flits around the Charms room, while the silhouettes of various magical beasts stroll past the Care of Magical Creatures section.

You can explore the night sky through this celestial globe using AR technology.

Image: British Library

And finally, J.K. Rowling's tweeted this artefact to her followers, the tombstone of the real-life Nicholas Flamel.

Flamel features in Harry Potter as the only wizard to have successfully made the philosopher's stone, but he is also a real historical figure. In the books he lives with his wife in Devon at the ripe old age of 665. In reality Flamel was a Parisian landlord, and rumours about him discovering the philosopher's stone sprang up after his death in 1418.

Where and when

The exhibition opens to the public today, Friday, 20 October, and will run until 28 February 2018. The British Library will also be running some special one-off events in conjunction with the exhibition, such as a Hogwarts curriculum.

U.S. fans never fear, "Harry Potter: a History of Magic" will be coming to the New-York Historical Society in October 2018.

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